The present invention relates to printers and, in particular, it concerns a dual-mode printer for printing on both flexible and rigid substrates.
There exist many printer configurations for printing on flexible substrates. These range from sheet-fed paper printers up to large format roll-to-roll and roll-to-sheet printers for printing on continuous webs of various materials such as paper, adhesive vinyl, cloth and PVC. Two examples of the latter types are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
In general terms, all such printers have a feed system including various rollers 10 configured to feed the flexible substrate in a given feed direction between a print head 12 and an opposing support strip 14. Depending on the type of print head and the width of the substrate, a motion system (not shown) may be used to scan the print head in a direction perpendicular to the feed direction. Relative displacement between the substrate and the print head parallel to the feed direction, on the other hand, is typically generated exclusively by the feed system.
There exist many applications in which printed matter is to be displayed on rigid substrates. This is most commonly achieved by printing on flexible substrates and then attaching the flexible substrate to the rigid substrate. However, this procedure is clearly inefficient and wasteful.
In the field of plotters, commonly used for technical drawings and plans, it is known to attach a substrate, typically paper, to a large support surface and to displace a print head, typically in the form of a pen, across the surface in two dimensions.
Although the applicant is not aware of any such system, it would appear possible to employ the plotter-type configuration to design a printer for rigid substrates along the lines illustrated in FIG. 3. Here, the rigid substrate 20 would be attached to a support surface 22 and a print head 24 would be moved over it in at least one, and typically two, dimensions by a motion system 26, 27.
While the printer of FIG. 3 would provide a solution for printing on rigid substrates, provision of a specialized rigid-substrate printer will in many cases not be economically or logistically viable.
There is therefore a need for a dual-mode printer for printing on both flexible and rigid substrates.